May 2009

Camassia and Trollius blooming

May 28, 2009

Camassia ‘Electra’ is blooming a week earlier than last year, despite the freeze last week. ‘Electra’ came from David Burdick and was planted in 2005. My garden buddy Bub started the globeflowers from seed and gave me two plants, which I have since divided.

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What happens to plants after an untimely freeze? Part 1

May 27, 2009
Thumbnail image for What happens to plants after an untimely freeze? Part 1

Part of what makes my cold climate garden cold is the fact that we live in the bottom of a valley, and cold air flows downhill and settles all around us. So however cold the weatherman predicts it will get, it’s usually colder here. Often, ten degrees colder. For example, on May 12th, when a [...]

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Home Depot Gift Card winner

May 20, 2009

The Home Depot $100 Gift Card giveaway ended yesterday. Time to pick the winner. Out of 35 qualifying comments (two were my replies), the random number generator picked number 7, which was Suzanne Offner. Congratulations, Suzanne, and good luck building those raised beds! Thank you to Home Depot for making this giveaway possible.

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Compost your manure before using

May 19, 2009

FYI: Horse manure mixed with sawdust bedding is a wonderful soil amendment, until the pasture grass starts sprouting. Weeding grass today.

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Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day May 2009

May 16, 2009

Spring has finally arrived at Purdville. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost some of my photo gallery features when I switched to this new design. You can click on each thumbnail for a larger image, but then you have to use your browser’s Back button to get back to the thumbnails. Also blooming: Creeping phlox [...]

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Mystery Flower Blooms for Bloom Day

May 16, 2009
cold climate narcissus

Mystery Flower Up in the Woods We have lived here for almost twenty years now, and yet almost every year I discover a new wildflower growing up there. I don’t know how much this is due to the maturing of the the woodlands, and how much is due to my making more of an effort [...]

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Check out Home Depot’s Garden Club–you may win a $100 Home Depot gift card

May 16, 2009
home depot logo

Home Depot wants you to check out their garden club, and they’re offering a $100 gift card to one Cold Climate Gardening reader as an incentive to go take a look. I had registered with their garden club a long time ago, but hadn’t been back in quite a while, and they’ve added a lot [...]

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What I am doing differently this year

May 14, 2009
Cold Climate Gardening narcissus

Dottie over at D and G Gardens and Crafts blog asked me what I was doing differently this year in my garden. I’d have to say there are no dramatic changes, just a shift in emphasis. I’m trying to work harder at maintaining what I have, rather than adding a lot of new plants. I [...]

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Pruning with a Reciprocating Saw

May 12, 2009
Use a reciprocating saw for your medium size pruning jobs

Carol’s done it. Mary Ann, the Idaho Gardener’s done it. So has Mr. McGregor’s Daughter and Cindy from My Corner of Katy and M Sinclair Stevens from Zanthan Gardens. They’ve all used a reciprocating saw to prune woody plants. Not only have they pruned with a recip saw, they raved about how easy it made [...]

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Frost Advisory

May 10, 2009

Frost advisory tonight. Just covered a gazillion precocious plants. Had to use a kitchen garbage can for the lilies, that tall already.

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Premature Dahlia Planting

May 9, 2009

I planted a dahlia in the ground today. Should I join Gamblers Anonymous? http://ping.fm/HKOhp

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When is my last spring frost?

May 9, 2009
Read about guessing the last spring frost date

Usually, when you want to know your last spring frost, the experts send you to a hardiness zone map, a chart, or even the NOAA records, conceding that this will only give you a ballpark figure. If you really want to know your local last frost date, consult a neighbor–at least until you’ve kept records [...]

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Did my plant make it through the winter?

May 8, 2009
Read about plants that didn't make it through the winter

Spring: when a gardener wonders which of last year’s new plants made it through the winter. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote down a list of things I had planted last year but hadn’t seen make an appearance yet. Here’s the list, with my current thinking on each (click on each thumbnail to enlarge): [...]

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